Thursday, February 5, 2009

Bryant-Denny Stadium Endzone Expansion - Friday's UA Board Meeting

BY NICK TAYLOR

University of Alabama Director of Athletics Mal Moore announced Tuesday that after more than a year of discussions with UA President Dr. Robert E. Witt, Vice-President for Financial Affairs Dr. Lynda Gilbert and the UA System Board of Trustees, Moore will formally request Board of Trustees approval for a plan for expansion of Bryant-Denny Stadium's South End Zone. The proposed project will add more than 9,000 seats and 36 skyboxes to raise the stadium's capacity to approximately 101,000.

The proposed project would take place in four phases:

1) utility relocation;-New capacity for storm water, sanitary sewer, and domesticwater to support the South End Zone expansion and clear corridors by relocating and re-routing utilities.

2) Demolition of existing structure; -Demolishing concrete pavement and removing abandoned utilities and the scoreboard on the south side of the stadium.

3) audio/visual upgrade; -Demolition of existing audio/visual equipment at several locations in the stadium, and installation of a new distributed sound system; audio/visualsystem installation; exterior sound system installation; broadcast cabling; televisionreplacement; speaker replacement on concourse level; installation of a new television distribution system.

Also Tide Times contacted Dr. Carol Garrison of UAB for futher comment and elected to set up a meeting with the Director of Media Relations Dale Turnbow after the Board of Trustees meet this week. Tide Times will have further detail about the expansion reports next week.